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Listen "Ep214 – Pan Koutlakis (Co-founder & CEO – EatClub) on rebuilding EatClub from $0 revenue to global expansion after COVID"
Episode Synopsis
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Ep214 – Pan Koutlakis (Co-founder & CEO – EatClub) on rebuilding EatClub from $0 revenue to global expansion after COVID
July 3, 2025
rohitbhargava
Podcast
My guest for Ep214 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Pan Koutlakis.
Pan is the Co-Founder and CEO of EatClub, a platform that uses dynamic pricing to help restaurants fill empty tables during off-peak hours, while passing on great deals to diners.
EatClub saw remarkable growth early on, but like many in the industry, the business came to a standstill when COVID hit, with revenue dropping to zero overnight. Pan responded by drastically downsizing overheads, restructuring the company, and rebuilding momentum recently leading the business to secure an impressive $18.2 million Series A round.
In this episode we covered a variety of topics including:
How he convinced industry heavyweight Marco Pierre White to come on board
Navigating the uncertainty of COVID
The power of setting ambitious targets
Frameworks for making strategic long-term bets
And much more!
Timestamps:
00:01:10 Pan’s Adelaide upbringing, law-and-economics studies & first jobs in hospitality
00:08:41 Joining Rocket Internet’s ‘Suppertime’ and witnessing growth-at-all-costs firsthand
00:10:17 Founding EatClub
00:13:08 Cold-emailing Marco Pierre White, why the celebrity chef came on board
00:16:12 Structuring deals with celebrities
00:22:22 Signing the very first restaurant (on the first cold-call) and refining the MVP
00:27:58 EVP’s initial pass, eventual investment and the overnight COVID revenue crash
00:56:15 Tough cuts, shutdown of U.S. ops, and doubling-down on R&D during lockdown
00:39:32 Founder/Investor relationship
00:47:58 How he thinks about product roadmap and what features to build
00:55:07 Post-pandemic rebound, UK market entry & closing the $18.2 M Series A
Our partners:
A big thank you to Dan Szekely, Jonte Shaw and David Hodges for their help with this interview!
Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show:
Scendar
Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com
Vanta
Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount.
Links mentioned:
The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator
Pan’s links:
Pan on LinkedIn
EatClub
People mentioned:
Marco Pierre White
David Berger
Ben Tyler
Matt Cantelo
Daniel Szekely
Jamie Oliver
Gordon Ramsay
Dan Szekely
Jonte Shaw
David Hodges
Companies mentioned:
EatClub
EVP
Suppertime
Foodora
Delivery Hero
Rocket Internet
Menulog
Groupon
Uber Eats
Mastercard
Feedback/connect/say hello:
[email protected]
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel
Credits:
Music: Paycheck
Other channels:
Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep214_-_Pan_Koutlakis.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS
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January 1, 2014
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January 1, 2014
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admin
January 1, 2014
Reply
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
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